Climate Activism Groups Hold Demonstration in Needham Center
August 24, 2026
• Green Needham and Elders Climate Action Massachusetts co-hosted the sign-holding event Wednesday in Needham Center.
The local demonstration was part of the Climate Summer: Too Hot to Ignore initiative, a nationwide effort led by the Climate Action Campaign coalition, which includes organizations like ECA.
Seth Evans, who chairs the education committee of the ECA’s Massachusetts chapter, said the goal of the event was to raise awareness about climate change.
“A lot of people are still not willing to take action,” said Evans, who is also a former Needham Public Schools teacher. “Our goal is to show them that even taking action in small ways makes a difference.”
Nearly two dozen people held signs and banners during the demonstration, which started at 5:30 p.m. on the corner of Great Plain Avenue and Chapel Street.
Most of the signs were provided by the event organizers. They featured white text reading “climate can’t wait” over climate stripes, a design created by British scientist Ed Hawkins that visualizes each year’s average temperature with a bluer or redder color. From 1850 through 2025, the colors progressively get redder.
During the event, Evans asked participants to gather for a group photo. The photo is intended to be sent to U.S. Rep. Jake Auchincloss, D-Newton, as well as “congressional leadership,” Green Needham wrote on its website. The Massachusetts ECA held a similar rally in Brookline the weekend prior, Evans said.
Green Needham is a nonprofit advocacy organization that promotes sustainability and environmental responsibility through individual and legislative efforts. Group members were behind several Town Meeting warrant articles aiming to restrict use of various plastics, and the organization recommends people go green by switching to electric vehicles, reducing food waste and opting for renewable energy, among other lifestyle changes.
Congress is currently in its August recess, which means representatives and senators will have returned to their home states. Evans said this, along with the upcoming 2026 midterms, contributed to the timing of the demonstration.
Following the 2024 presidential election, elected Democrats made fewer mentions of climate change in press releases, according to an analysis by Inside Climate News. Some Democratic strategists have argued prioritizing climate rhetoric could alienate voters, who are more concerned with issues such as the economy and cost of living.
Evans said he hoped seeing climate demonstrations would push lawmakers to move climate change “up on the agenda.”
Aidan Boni, 23, said climate change “is the biggest issue of our time.” He said he was disappointed with the state of environmental action at the local, state and federal level.
“In Needham, we could do a better job of really sticking to the climate roadmap that’s been passed,” Boni said during the demonstration. “Obviously we have a budget… but there’s a lot of really great stuff in that document.”
The Needham Select Board officially adopted the Sustainable Needham Climate Action Roadmap in 2024. The roadmap outlines an action plan for achieving goals like clean energy and low-emission transportation. Town Meeting adopted an updated stormwater bylaw in May, and the board identified protecting the town’s tree canopy as a goal.
The Wednesday demonstration came amidst an exceptionally hot summer worldwide, with global surface air temperatures for July tying for the second warmest on record, behind July 2024. Last month, smoke from wildfires in Canada caused hazy conditions and dangerously poor air quality across the Midwest and Northeast United States, including in Needham. From mid-June to early August, Massachusetts had declared the Southeast drought management region, which encompasses Needham, to be in a significant drought.
Green Needham Steering Committee member Eleanor Rosellini, 77, also attended the demonstration. She said she had witnessed a warming climate over her lifetime, and became passionate about environmental activism after seeing former Vice President Al Gore’s 2006 documentary “An Inconvenient Truth.”
Rosellini teared up as she spoke of her two grandchildren, aged 3 and 5.
“I worry about their future,” Rosellini said, “because I know that we’re feeling the effects of climate change, and that’s only going to progress more as time goes on.”
Benjamin Fogler is a rising sophomore at Northwestern University, where he is studying journalism. Fogler, who graduated from Needham High School, also writes for The Daily Northwestern.
Participants also spoke with our crew from the Needham Channel News:
